Delivering Clean Water to Students in the Himalayas through Innovative Partnerships

Description:The Munsel-ling boarding school is located in the Spiti Valley, a desert mountain valley located in the northeastern part of the Indian State of Himachal Pradesh. This remote, high-altitude valley in the Himalayas has no access for more than seven months of the year due to snow on the high mountain passes. Since its foundation in 1996, the school has struggled to provide adequate safe drinking water; diarrheal disease is pervasive in the student population despite efforts to improve student health at the school. In 2006, the Munsel-ling school partnered with UBCs Global Health Initiative (GHI) – a student-led initiative that seeks to enhance global health education and provide hands-on skills training to UBC students. GHI also offers students the opportunity to participate in health projects across the globe.
Since partnering with Munsel-ling in 2006, GHI has worked to improve health at the school, but the supply of clean drinking water has remained an issue. In 2013, GHI partnered with Hatch Mott MacDonald (HMM), an engineering consulting company, to address drinking water supply, quality, and accessibility at the school. HMM offered the time and expertise of their Vancouver Water Team, who supported a team of senior engineering students from UBC in the design of a water system for the school. HMM provided guidance on hydraulic design, cold-weather conveyance, and drainage. The collaboration between the UBC engineering students and the HMM Water Team led to a more robust and durable design that was implemented in 2013.